Technique Appreciation Station - Guillotine choke

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that's been learning takedown defense from a Weeble.

This time on Technique Appreciation Station, a fairly standard choke with a couple of interesting variations, the guillotine choke.

Protect Ya Neck!

Before we can fully explore the wonders of the guillotine, we must first learn how to apply a simple, basic guillotine choke. Pretty straight forward, just grab a neck and do a squeeze thing and bing, bang, boom, guillotine.

Standard, in-guard guillotines are all well and good, but there are enough variants to keep things interesting:

There's the arm-in guillotine, or what I sometimes call the "whoopsie d'arce-aconda".

Also fun is the standing guillotine.

Wonderful, terrible things

 Especially if you are like Dan Miller or Scott Jorgensen and can do terrible things to your opponent.

If you combine the arm-in and the standing, you get the B-League Special, and it's always fun watching Bellator prelims, trying to guess which fights will end with a standing arm-in guillotine.

A slight modification to the standing guillotine is the power guillotine, done with a grip similar to a rear naked choke, and made famous by Team Alpha Male, which is why I call it the Brollotine.

Similar to the Brollotine is Tim Kennedy's Oswald, which I've only seen once, but it was horrifying and cool at the same time.

Some weird people in England have really goofed up the entire concept of the guillotine and "invented" something they call the "Grobbit". Do not ever attempt the "Grobbit", it is dumb and so are those weird Britishers.

The ultimate in guillotine variations, though, is the devastating McKenzietine. Perfected by Cody McKenzie he utilized to hilarious effect on The Ultimate Fighter.

Fear not, friends! Should you ever find yourself ensnared in a guillotine, you do have one avenue for salvation: the Von Flue shoulder choke. It's not going to work all the time, and I believe it is pretty much useless against the McKenzietine, but it's not bad if there's nothing else. Plus, it's a weird, wonky, rarely used submission, and I'm all about those.

What Did We Learn?

• Gurgle
• Blurble
• Bleargh
• *unconscious*

Fighter Retrospective - Ikuhisa Minowa

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that's proof that if you have a dream, go ahead, anything is pasta bowl!

Today on Fighter Retrospectives I'm taking a look at one of the more pro-wrestley guys, Ikuhisa "the Punk" Minowa, more commonly known as MINOWAMAN. He's also currently active, so this is more of a Fighter Appreciation than a Retrospective, so leave appropriate vitriol in the comments for such an egregious goof up.

Who is this man, and what does he do?

A typical Wednesday for MINOWAMAN

Ikuhisa Minowa is a grapple-man made out of a mullet, a red speedo, dropkicks, and pure amazing (Yes, part of his training includes racing airplanes).  He's most well known for challenging guys with at least fifty pounds on him, but far inferior skills.  This is because Japanese MMA is both ridiculous and great, and cares not for fighter safety or fair fights.

Minowa got his start in 1996 and went 1-8-1 in his first ten fights, most of them taking place in Pancrase (Apparently I can only do a Retrospective if a Fighter competed amongst other Hybrid Wrestlers). Undaunted, Minowa continued fighting, and slowly started to even out his record, finally getting to .500 in 1999 with a 10-10-5 mark. He reached a true winning percentage in 2000, getting to 12-11-6, and he currently stands at 55-34-8, with over a quarter of his fights contested as Openweight bouts (Japanese MMA, you are truly, truly outrageous).

Minowa is impressive in the ways he wins, too, with 39 of his 55 wins coming by way of submission (71%), with 12 different types of submissions used to finish fights. He's mostly a leg specialist, with 18 wins coming below the waist (46% of all his submissions). He does have two wins by scarf hold armlock, which is about as many as the rest of the MMA world combined.

He Ever Win a Title?

Has he ever! MINOWAMAN only won the most glorious and prestigious tournament in the history of combat sports, the DREAM Openweight tournament, also known as SUPER HULK! It was a grueling contest, pitting three non-heavyweight mixed martial artists (plus Jose Canseco, because Japan) against four super heavyweight fighters.

Minowa's first match was against the enormous Bob Sapp (This was before Sapp decided to just collect a paycheck, and probably have at least a quarter of a fuck left to give). Minowa easily dispatched "The Beast" with a leglock in round one.

Next, came the even more gigantic Hong Man Choi, the only super heavyweight to win his opening round fight (Because it was against Jose Canseco. Again, JAPAN).

Minowa won again with another leglock, but it took him until round two to dispatch the biggest man in the tournament.

The tournament finals pitted Minowa against "The African Assasin" Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Sokoudjou had won both of his fights with impressive ground and pound stoppages, and though he was bigger than MINOWAMAN (The smallest competitor in the tournament), he appeared to have some amount of fighting skill. It was to be an epic showdown.

In a hilarious turn of events, MINOWAMAN knocked out Sokoudjou.

With the win, MINOWAMAN now laid claim to the greatest prize in the history of combat sports, the SUPER HLUK title!

 The prestige is overwhelming.

MINOWAMAN and the SUPER HLUK title's creator.

Anything else?

He does pro wrestling, sometimes just as MINOWAMAN, but apparently he's also Tiger Mask V. Allow MINOWAMAN into your heart, for all he wants is to make it brighter.

Fighter Retrospective - Genki Sudo

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s a worse judge of fights than Cecil Peoples.

Fighter Retrospectives is when I take a look back at retired fighters (Or at least a guy that’s been fighting at least 15 years) and try to convince you why they are super-duper awesome.   Today, the focus is on the Transforming Trickster, the Neo-Samurai, Genki Sudo.

Wull, why should I care about this guy?  (That’s you)

Genki Sudo is probably my favorite fighter that I never saw live, and sometimes he’s my favorite fighter, period, with no qualifications.  He was predominantly a grappler, having done Greco-Roman wrestling in high school, and then later taking up Brazilian jiu-jitsu.  His striking wasn’t awful, and he even fought in some K-1 kickboxing bouts (to extremely limited success, going 2-4), but his hugging prowess easily overshadows his kickpuncher skills.  What really draws me to Sudo is his ability to mix showmanship with skill.  He had ridiculous entrances that not only blew most other fighter entrances out of the water (Pretty easy, since other than like five dudes all walk-outs are boring and bland), but were way better than a lot of professional wrestling entrances, too.  The antics didn’t stop inside the ropes (Or, for like three fights, the cage), though.  Genki would dance around during a fight, dropping his hands to do the robot, turn his back on his opponent, and basically refuse to take things seriously.  He claimed it was never to embarrass or make fun of his opponent, but his attempts at elevating the fight to a true art form.  His overarching message is We Are All One, a concept he enforced by carrying a banner with that phrase and various flags of the world stitched onto it.

Okay, wull, lemme see some of these “awesome entrances” I guess.  (You, again)

A Genki Sudo entrance is a great thing to behold because it always involves costumes, backup dancers, rad, choreographed moves, and usually the dramatic removal of the aforementioned costume.

He’s walked out to the fight as, among other things, several different space robots, a Chinese drunken boxer, some sort of aboriginal person, and Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn.

Check out more Genki Sudo radness after the jump.

This Week in Dumb MMA Stuff

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s dirtier than Chieck Kongo.

Fights - UFC is back, yay!  I did super awful in my predictions, but I'm not that concerned, there is current A-League MMA in my world again!  The fight section is going to be pretty much all UFC 152 related.

Baczynski vs. Thoresen

Seth Baczynski dropped Simeon Thoresen with a nice overhand left to help start out the night.  Clearly the “Polish Pistola” was a higher caliber opponent for Thoresen (I AM AN AWFUL PUNSTER, PLEASE HELP!)

Magalhaes vs. Pokrajac

Vinny Magalhaes finished Igor Pokrajac with a beautiful armbar.  Igor complained the next day about getting submitted, whining that he didn’t want a grappling contest, but a fight, yet he’s the doofus that initiated a trip takedown on the jiu-jitsu blackbelt.  In the paraphrased, garbled words of Scott Steiner, I’ve got no sympy for Igor Pokrajac.

Check out action from the main card, plus much more after the jump!

Rad Fights of Yesteryear - Emelianenko vs Randleman

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s dirtier than Gilbert Yvel.

It's time, once again, for Rad Fights of Yesteryear!  This is from the 2004 Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix Quarterfinals, as then-current Pride Heavyweight champion, Fedor "the Last Emperor" Emelianenko takes on Kevin "the Monster Randleman.

Who Are These Jerks?

Fedor “the Last Emperor” Emelianenko is a Sambo practitioner, and, at the time of this fight, was considered one of the best Heavyweights in the world, coming into the contest at 18-1.  Kevin “the Monster” Randleman is a wrestler and has the size of a Light Heavyweight, but achieved far more success at Heavyweight (Probably because the Heavyweights generally aren't as skilled), capturing the UFC's Heavyweight title in 1999.  He enters this bout at 15-7. 

What's So Special About This Dumb Fight?

There’s a very brief striking exchange that allows Randleman to get a body clinch.  Kevin lifts Fedor off the mat and takes him down, landing in half-guard.  Randleman lands a few punches before Emelianenko gives up his back and stands back to his feet.  What follows is the greatest German suplex in the entire history of throws.

Randleman, having leveled up twice after knocking out Mirko Filipovic in his last fight, and wanting to try out his new moves, launches Emelianenko off his feet and decides to leap into the air as well, smashing Fedor’s head and neck into the canvas.  Surprisingly, Fedor’s head doesn’t fly off into the fifth row, nor does his spine get pulverized into bone dust.  Instead, Emelianenko calmly sweeps Randleman, attains side control, punches Randleman in the head around twenty times, and then sinks a fight ending kimura.

Being all stoic and Russian, Emelianenko pretty much remains calm the entire fight, only smiling slightly after Randleman lifts him in the air post-fight.

What Did We Learn?

• Wrestling is pretty cool, but Sambo is kind of awesome
• German suplexes are most awesome
• Sambo teaches you to fall from great heights directly on your head to no ill effects
•  Seriously, how did Fedor not die from that?

This Week in Dumb MMA Stuff

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s less mentally stable than Charles Bennett.

Fights – Strikeforce – Rousey vs. Kaufman was a good event, from top to bottom, so I’m going to spend a bit of time talking about those fights.

Mike Beltran, Dwarf Lord Referee

First off, I want to make special note of referee Mike Beltran and his glorious, hypnotic mustache.  He did have some off moments, like warning guys on the ground to keep working, despite submissions being actively sought for.  He also wanted to speed Roger Bowling’s groin shot recovery along, threatening to get the ring doctor involved despite the rules stating a fighter gets upwards of five minutes to recuperate.  He was much more accommodating to Germaine de Randame after she took a knee to the lady balls from Hiroko Yamanaka.

Check out actual fight information after the jump, and more!

Rad Fights of Yesteryear - Sudo vs. Oxley

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s less engaging than Kalib Starnes.

Rad Fights of Yesteryear is a feature where I talk about cool fights that are at least five years old.  Five years might not sound like much, but back then Tim Sylvia was the UFC Heavyweight champion.  A lot can change in the MMA world in five years.

Genki Sudo vs. Craig Oxley

Genki Sudo is the coolest dude around.  I’ll probably end up writing a full appreciation post for him where I go over more of his accomplishments, so just know that he is a Greco-Roman wrestler with a very high level Brazilian jiu-jitsu game.  Cool Grappler Man is a very fitting appellation for Genki Sudo, to go along with his more official nicknames of “Transforming Trickster” and “Neo Samurai”.

I don’t know who the hell Craig Oxley is, and it doesn’t really matter, this fight is all about Genki Sudo being a Cool Grappler Man.  I will point out that Oxley was making his professional debut and finished his career at 0-3 (Dang, I just spoiled the result of the fight!)

The fight is in Pancrase (Yes, they are Hybrid Wrestlers), but it’s not early Shamrock Brothers, Bas Rutten, Funaki Pancrase with no gloves and only palm strikes to an opponent’s head.  They’ve got gloves, but it’s still Pancrase, so they’ve also got shin guards, and Oxley is wearing shoes.  Though, this is from 2000, so shoes aren’t a big deal for a MMA fight.

Anyway, the fight starts, and Genki begins his normal routine of doing goofy shit.  He stands sideways to Oxley, eats a leg kick, then shoots in for a double leg.  Genki lands the takedown in side control, then transitions to north-south, then grabs for an armbar.  Oxley defends and rolls with Sudo, ending up with Craig in Genki’s full guard.

Genki keeps an active guard and gets Oxley in a triangle choke.  Genki lands a few strikes, but Oxley doesn’t seem to be in much danger from the submission, but he is stuck.  Sudo repositions his legs, trying the choke from the other side, but still no tap from Oxley.  Craig manages to get his head free, but in the ensuing scramble, Genki ends up on top of Craig in his closed guard.

Sudo postures up, stands, and then EXECUTES A GIANT SWING!  Genki drops to the mat, right into an Achilles lock, and despite Oxley fighting it, Sudo turns him over and gets the submission.

What Did We Learn?

•  Genki Sudo is cooler than you (And way cooler than me)
• Genki Sudo will out grapple a dude so bad he'll finish the fight with a pro wrestling move.